Not going home yet — Iowa legislative session to go into next week

DES MOINES - Lawmakers in the Iowa House and Iowa Senate worked their way through fiscal 2017 budget issues on their 102nd session day but ended Thursday with too much on their legislative plates to complete this year's agenda this week.

'I think we're ahead of where we've been in recent years,” said Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs. 'I think we're in good shape. We're working through problems. We will go back to our homes at the end of the day (Friday) and come back on Monday.”

Negotiations on remaining sticking points were expected to take place Friday and Monday, with an eye on shutting down the 2016 proceedings some time during the next week, he said.

Major issues pending include significant budget pieces, water quality initiatives and medical cannabis use, legalizing fireworks and fantasy sports, and beefing up oversight on privately managed Medicaid services.

Gov. Terry Branstad said he is 'really pushing” for a Senate debate on a House-passed water-quality bill, saying alternative approaches to raise the state sales tax by a fraction or use surplus funds are 'non-starters” that need not be pursued.

'We think it's a critical enough issue that the Senate should not go home without debating,” he said.

But majority Democrats say they are not interested in moving general fund money away from other funding needs by approving a House approach that would generate nearly half a billion dollars over 13 years by shifting money from state infrastructure projects and using revenue Iowans already pay on their water bills.

'The House plan pits water quality against every other priority in state government because it produces no new revenue and in fact steals existing revenue” from education, health care and other priorities, Gronstal said. 'We don't think that's much of a solution.”

Also Thursday, the Senate Democrats' budget committee put its stamp on two budget proposals crafted first in the Republican-controlled House.

It passed the House health care budget bill, adding its own language for Medicaid oversight and removing language that stripped funding from providers that perform abortions, like Planned Parenthood.

It also advanced a version of the catchall budget bill known as the standings appropriations. It strips the $2 million proposed by House Republicans for water quality projects and restores $1.25 million of a $5 million reduction in funding to Area Education Agencies.